While in London for the BRIT Awards, Kanye West sat down with BBC Radio 1's soon-to-be-leaving radio host Zane Lowe to follow up their infamous 2013 interview that spawned harsh criticism, parodies and "rap feuds." During their interview, West spoke about his controversial comments on Beck's Grammy win - for which he would later apologize in a series of tweets to the rocker — his new album, his Adidas fashion line, Drake, Paul McCartney, the death of fashion design professor Louise Wilson, his rumored tour with Rihanna, and much more. Here's what we learned:
On his new album:
“[I’m] just working hard on it, and it’s fun, it’s fun to work hard and we’re being inventive and I’ve still got a lot of opinions and perspectives that are important and could be inspiring to people that fight. College Dropout, the album, came out of a fight to want to rap and this new album’s coming out of a fight to want to design … it’s a joyful noise unto the Lord. It is still the struggle, but the beauty from the struggle. The song ‘Amazing Grace,’ coming out of the worst pain possible and making the most beautiful song possible. I want to perform ‘Only One’ as many times as possible.”
On working with Paul McCartney:
“I like the differences of views in our approach… I come in and have this list of complaints — ‘this happened!’ and ‘that happened!’ — and he’s like ‘Yo man, it’s all cool though — how about we make a song?’ And we just make song after song after song after song. People think that our first two singles don’t have songs, but both of those are percussive instruments. I liked songs like [‘FourFiveSeconds’] when I was growing up. I mean the type of chord changes that Paul does, I don’t even understand them, and to be involved with writing a song like that is like way next level. Meeting Paul McCartney is like meeting Ralph Lauren. It’s like whoa! The greatest in their field, period. Of all time. The whole [‘FourFiveSeconds’] cadence was trap. As soon as Paul starts playing, I start singing in trap. Fusion is the future. Period. The mixing of ideas, the mixing of the two lunch tables working together, you know, humanity period. We’re one people.”
On Beck:
“Yeah I misconstrued it … when I was — ironically — having dinner with Taylor Swift, the Beck song starts playing and I say ‘Wow, this is really good. Maybe I might have been wrong [laughing]!’”
On the Grammys:
"I hadn’t been in six years and the Grammys are definitely like an ex-girlfriend, soon as you get in the car with them, you want to go right back home."
On his rumored tour with Rihanna:
"I don't believe I'm supposed to confirm or not confirm."
On Drake:
"I don’t have any advice for this young man. But what I can say is: Run, fly, go as fast as you can. Don’t stop.”
On him calling himself a genius in the past:
“I was using the wrong words. My rap was wrong. I was getting the drink thrown in my face as opposed to leaving with the girl at the end of the night. Think about the type of wild sh*t I used to say in interviews, and imagine if someone said this very thing to a girl at a bar. ‘Yo, what up, baby, I’m a genius.’ They’d be like, ‘Yo, who’s this guy?’ ‘No, I’m telling you, I’m a genius. I sold all this, I sold this many shoes, da da da. And she’d be like, ‘Yo, chill, chill. Like gosh, get me out of here already.’ And that’s who I was.
“That was the frustration I had because I’m looking at this girl like I know [that we could be good together] but I just don’t know how to word it in the right way, so I’m going to stumble. I was like the 40-year-old virgin of dealing with corporations. I did not know how to communicate. It was like I had my point, ‘Your egg, my semen, we’ll change the world.’ That probably sounds wrong. I like saying shit that sounds wrong anyway because we have the right to be wrong sometimes.”
On classism being the new racism:
“Class is the new way to discriminate against people, to hold people down, to hold people in their place based on where their kids go to school, how much money they make, what they drive, where they live, and what type of clothes they have, and how much they have in their account for retirement. To somehow say, this person here means more than this person — I know I tweet ‘Black Lives Matter’ but all lives matter. My doorman is more important to me than any head of any company. He keeps us safe. My driver, he keeps us safe and goes to work everyday. The guy painting the windows … he is just as important as anyone who walks in the house and grabs a glass of champagne.”
On making his clothing affordable:
“It was a futile argument for me to say, ‘Hey everyone get behind me so I can make another $5,000 jacket that you can’t afford. It’s like insane. But now I feel like people are rallying because they know I want to fight for H&M-, ZARA-type concept, and I know that Adidas can eventually get those price points.
“I want to apologize to everyone right now because Season One might still be in that upper price point, and there’s still the word exclusivity being thrown around. Exclusivity is the new n-word. Not n***a. Exclusivity. Am I saying that right? That is the new N-word because nothing should be exclusive. Everyone should have the opportunity to drink from the same fountain. The idea of exclusivity is a new colored people fountain concept. Saying, we’re going to overcharge sneaker culture guys to you know drink at the right fountain.
“We have to reboot our mentality. Period. Of a generation. It wouldn’t even matter if I sold one sweatshirt as long as this interview gets done and kids hear this and know this, and someone in a position of power in the future has a chance to make a difference and that they saw someone at their lowest point, grabbing at straws, express themselves freely and overcome it through all adversity, [which] means they can do the same thing.”
On the death of fashion design professor Louise Wilson:
“Louise Wilson was the baddest professor of all time of any fashion school ever. [She was] notorious for not letting people stop at a 7 or an 8, pushing people to a 12. The last time I saw her, we were having dinner at Hakasan, that’s my favorite restaurant in London. I think she knew that she was going to pass, and she just wanted to give me some words of advice before it. She was asking me about my daughter, asking me about my wife, and she said, ‘So many students, they don’t give it their all. And the problem is that as soon as they do anything halfway good — when they are 2 years old or 3 years old — their parents clap.’ She just looked at me and said, ‘Kanye, don’t clap.’ I didn’t know we were going to lose her, and she told me, and she said, ‘You know, thank you for the times we came to performances and this is like really meant a lot to me, you know she would…[breaks down crying].”
On his plans for more kids with Kim Kardashian:
“Oh, I’m practicing really hard, I try as many times a day as I can. Nori this one is for you…you need a sibling!”
On being vilified:
"I can be vilified or misunderstood—I didn’t come here to be liked, I came here to make a difference. Not particularly this interview, I’m talking about life. Some people’s job, they’re very extremely likable. I think I could figure that out. I think I’m way nicer to people in general. Everyone I meet I’m extremely nice [to]. But as soon as people start playing games, I stop playing games. At any moment I can hit that Ye button and we can go right back to day one."
Watch the full interview below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
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